|
|
|
|
|
All Virginia women, regardless of class or race, had to
work, and work hard, to survive. Despite the inequities
of class and race, and disparate access to wealth and recreation,
work was a uniting factor. As early as 1619, the General
Assembly remarked, "in a newe plantation, it is not
knowen whether man or woman be the most necessary."
Women were absolutely necessary for the colony's survival.
Their important roles, often missing from historic documents,
are recorded in the material remains they left behind. Artifacts,
letters, and buildings display the struggles and strengths
of Virginia's women. As the colony spread westward, powered
a revolution, became a powerful force in the birth of the
United States, and endured a Civil War and social strife,
women - as mothers, wives, laborers, craftspeople, and leaders
- were essential to the story of Virginia.
|
 |
| Eighteenth-century watercolor of women slaves clearing
new ground for crops. A white male overseer watches
as they work. |
|
 |
 |
| Lucy may have worn a dress similar to this one, suitable
for day time entertaining. |
|
Lucy was a third generation Virginian,
and daughter of the well established planter, Lewis Burwell
II (1650-1710). She was born at Fairfield in 1683 and baptized
at Abingdon Parish Church. During her youth, the thousands
of acres comprising Fairfield plantation were worked by
hundreds of people - slaves, tenants and indentured servants.
The task of organizing the house slaves, meals, general
day to day scheduling, tending the sick, and addressing
other necessities, fell to the mistress of the plantation
and her daughters. From an early age Lucy would learn how
the plantation worked.
|
 |
| Sewing and maintaining clothing was a valued skill
on the plantation. Lucy was likely trained to mend and
possibly make her own clothing, using needles and pins
to adorn her dresses with buttons or beads, like those
shown above. |
|
| When Lucy was bout
17, she began to attract suitors. Among the most interesting
of these was Francis Nicholson, Royal Governor of Virginia.
Nicholson spent several years writing letters to Lucy, her
father, mother and anyone else of influence to win her hand.
His letters of desire, passion and obsession for Lucy once
proclaimed that if she wed another, he would kill the minister,
groom, her brother and the clerk who signed the legal documents.
Nicholson's bold missteps angered Lewis Burwell II, and contributed
to his official recall to England in 1705. Lucy instead married
Edmund Berkley of Barn Elms, Middlesex County, in 1704; a
match more in keeping with her father's wishes, who saw all
his children marry into prominent and wealthy Virginia families.
At her new home Lucy controlled the domestic sphere of the
plantation, fulfilling the roles she practiced as a child.
Lucy passed away in 1716. |
 |
| Stephen Fouce (friend), Lewis Burwell II, and Governor
Francis Nicholson each played a role in the turmoil
surrounding Lucy Burwell's courtship. Their wine bottle
seals have been found together in both Jamestown and
Williamsburg. |
|
|
|
|
|
